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An Integral Part of Life

Source:

Land Trust Alliance

Author:

Rob Aldrich

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Photo by Cara Slifka

When I was just a kid many years ago, my family marveled at “the Old Man of the Mountain,” a granite formation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire that looked like the profile of a face when viewed from the north. Settlers in the early 1800’s named it, and the state’s department of transportation uses the profile outline on state highway route signs. People were astounded when the whole formation just fell away on May 3, 2003.

How could something as permanent as a granite formation just collapse? It got me wondering about the land we all use every day and take for granted. Imagine if there were no more parks or swimming holes, farms or forests or trails. What would that be like?

What about the social durability of conservation? Something is socially durable when the community accepts it as an integral part of their life. They can’t live without it. Think schools, clean water, emergency services. When those are threatened, people rise up and defend them.

Imagine if conserved land were socially durable. It could happen if people from all walks of life were connected to and directly benefited from land conservation programs and projects. If they could experience how saving land was integral to their health, the education of their children, clean water, jobs, and other issues they consider a priority.

For the past few years, there have been statewide discussions In Maine around taxation of nonprofits. A recently proposed budget from the governor would tax at 50% of the usual rate for all nonprofit properties in excess of $500,000 aggregate value per town as nonprofits, they would normally be exempt from all taxes). For DRA, paying this would have had a serious, adverse impact on their budget and limit the work they could do and land they could save.

DRA’s state senator who met with one of their local town boards of selectmen (similar to a city council, for New England towns, this is the executive arm of the government), highlighted — unsolicited — the value and benefits of the local land trusts and the risks of the tax proposal. He stood up for the land trust because he experienced the why of their conservation work — to make the communities where they worked better places to live. Not just for the wealthy landowners, but for everyone.

That’s a solid first step in building social durability.

Rob Aldrich is the community conservation director at the Land Trust Alliance.

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